It's almost Thanksgiving. I'm having a hard time making it through this short work week. How is it that three days can seem so much longer than five? Oh well, let's move on with the trivia. The theme this week is (predictably) Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving in the US has bounced around from time to time moving from the last Thursday in November to the next to last and back again. It wasn't until Congress declared Thanksgiving as a national holiday taking place on the fourth Thursday of November that things finally settled down. What year did this act of Congress finally happen?
In researching this to make sure I had my facts straight, I was amused to find that during the time when there was discussion over whether it would be the last or next to last Thursday, some states just took both as a holiday. Why couldn't that have been the final decision? That is the true spirit of compromise. Double the time off work. Double the turkey. Double the pie. Everybody wins. Except the turkey, I suppose.
Bonus Question: According to the Thanksgiving Song by Adam Sandler, whose fans can't be wrong? "Eat that turkey, all night long. 50 million _____ fans can't be wrong."
Usual rules apply. Post your answer to the question and/or bonus question in the comments section to win Turkey day bragging rights.
November 22, 2005
Trivial Tuesday
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3 comments:
...50 million Elvis fans...
While George Washington is responsible for the first Thanksgiving as a nation, the current date was picked by Franklin Roosevelt in 1939 to increase the length of the holiday shopping season (because of the depression).
Alabamamammy
Yes, the answer to the bonus question is "50 million Elvis fans."
Everything in your answer is correct except that the date picked by Roosevelt in 1939 is not the current date (at least not every year). Before that, it was the last Thursday in November and Roosevelt changed it to the next to last Thursday in an attempt to boost the economy. The date we have now of the fourth Thursday of the month was a compromise, falling sometimes on the last and sometimes on the next to last Thursday. So, the year I'm looking for is just a bit after 1939.
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